Photo: Skyports
Milan will host the Winter Olympic Games in 2026, but that won’t be the only exciting event happening then. At the same, a new air taxi service is set to be launched. It’s supposed to debut specifically for the Winter Olympics, but will continue to provide alternative means of transportation over the next decades. The main players involved in this complex project have recently taken important steps that will get them from theory to practice.
Thousands of people who will be attending the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games are also about to experience a futuristic way of traveling through the city –via flying taxis, waiting to pick them up at newly-established vertiports.
A future network comprised of six regional vertiports and nine urban ones, will begin with four of them being built in Milan. Two will be set up at the Linate and Malpensa airports, one at Porta Romana (close to the Olympic village) and another one in the CityLife district. The most important one, acting as a hub, will be the one at Malpensa, while the other three will be smaller.
The future vertiports will be managed by a new company, established by SEA (Società Esercizi Aeroportuali) which operates the Malpensa and Linate airports, Skyports, and 2i Aeroporti. This was recently announced by SEA’s managing director Armando Brunini, during a municipal hearing.
The collaboration between SEA and Skyports began back in 2021, when they first started analyzing the possibility of developing a network of vertiports across Italy. Skyports is one of the most important names in AAM (Advanced Air Mobiliy) and has already established numerous infrastructure partnerships in various parts of the world, including Paris, Los Angeles, and Dubai.
It’s important to note that the future vertiports are supposed to be vehicle-agnostic, which means that we might see eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing) from various brands taking off and landing in the Italian city. However, it seems that operations will begin with 2-passenger flights (which will also make them more expensive, at €120/$130 per person) and expand to 4- or 6-passenger flights in the future. This will also make air taxi flights more affordable.
However, that won’t probably happen sooner than 2030. By that time, SEA officials expect to have 2,000 passengers riding in flying taxis on a daily basis, with better profits for the company as well. Until then, the focus is on the investment-related part of the project. Just these four initial vertiports in Milan are expected to require more than €30 million ($32.4 million).
These won’t be the first vertiports in Europe. Skyports is involved in a similar project in France, which plans to launch the first airport for eVTOLs on the continent in time for next year’s Summer Olympics.
A future network comprised of six regional vertiports and nine urban ones, will begin with four of them being built in Milan. Two will be set up at the Linate and Malpensa airports, one at Porta Romana (close to the Olympic village) and another one in the CityLife district. The most important one, acting as a hub, will be the one at Malpensa, while the other three will be smaller.
The future vertiports will be managed by a new company, established by SEA (Società Esercizi Aeroportuali) which operates the Malpensa and Linate airports, Skyports, and 2i Aeroporti. This was recently announced by SEA’s managing director Armando Brunini, during a municipal hearing.
The collaboration between SEA and Skyports began back in 2021, when they first started analyzing the possibility of developing a network of vertiports across Italy. Skyports is one of the most important names in AAM (Advanced Air Mobiliy) and has already established numerous infrastructure partnerships in various parts of the world, including Paris, Los Angeles, and Dubai.
It’s important to note that the future vertiports are supposed to be vehicle-agnostic, which means that we might see eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing) from various brands taking off and landing in the Italian city. However, it seems that operations will begin with 2-passenger flights (which will also make them more expensive, at €120/$130 per person) and expand to 4- or 6-passenger flights in the future. This will also make air taxi flights more affordable.
However, that won’t probably happen sooner than 2030. By that time, SEA officials expect to have 2,000 passengers riding in flying taxis on a daily basis, with better profits for the company as well. Until then, the focus is on the investment-related part of the project. Just these four initial vertiports in Milan are expected to require more than €30 million ($32.4 million).
These won’t be the first vertiports in Europe. Skyports is involved in a similar project in France, which plans to launch the first airport for eVTOLs on the continent in time for next year’s Summer Olympics.
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